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Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Lisa See
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy Used: $1.47
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Rating:  615 reviews
Sales Rank: 548
Media: Paperback
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.7
ISBN: 0812968069
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780812968064
ASIN: 0812968069
Publication Date: February 21, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition.May include ex library markings. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact(including dust cover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting. Thank You for your purchase, it goes to a non profit organization and will be shipped in 24 business hours.
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Product Description
In nineteenth-century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, “old same,” in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. The laotong, Snow Flower, introduces herself by sending Lily a silk fan on which she’s painted a poem in nu shu, a unique language that Chinese women created in order to communicate in secret, away from the influence of men. As the years pass, Lily and Snow Flower send messages on fans, compose stories on handkerchiefs, reaching out of isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments. Together, they endure the agony of foot-binding, and reflect upon their arranged marriages, shared loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their deep friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 610 more reviews...
 Sympathy with Both Women and Men July 10, 2005
Virginia J. Tufte (Beverly Hills, CA USA)
284 out of 309 found this review helpful
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel is surely intended for any reader who likes a compelling, historically-set, moving, suspenseful story. I have been a fan of Lisa See's mysteries, and her sympathies with, and skill in creating characters of both sexes, are apparent in both the mystery plots and the present book.
This plot is beautifully woven, with two women at its center, but there is compassion for both the women and the men in the nineteenth-century Chinese society the author re-creates so vividly. Lisa See obviously LIKES her characters, and she develops some understanding of and compassion for ALL of them. Her natural sensitivity, vast research--including visits and interviews in the remote region she is writing about--make her work fully convincing.
Tender, celebratory, joyous, painful, heart-breaking at times-- this is a memorable, glorious book. After reading it, I found myself thinking more and more about some of the power, motivations, love, violence, and ways of communication in our twenty-first century societies.
I will pass my copy along to a friend or two, but I will say "Be sure to return it."
 Engrossing Story of Women's Friendships August 14, 2005
Elizabeth Hendry (New Jersey USA)
167 out of 178 found this review helpful
Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is an engrossing and fascinating story of women's friendships in nineteenth century rural China. This is an excellent, well-written novel--fascinating on so many levels. Lily, the narrator of the novel is in her eighties, looking back on her life. She shares the stories of her foot binding, nu shu, the secret women's writing, and the various formally women's friendships that society enforced. Lily's sister participated in a sworn sisterhood, where a group of young women formed a friendship that was to last until marriage, but Lily is paired with one girl, Snow Flower, her laotong or "old same." Lily and Snow Flower have a love that is stronger than all of her other relationships--and it causes them both more heartbreak. The novel is really the story of their friendship, its depths, its deceits, its strengths--and it is a fascinating read about a society so different from our own. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan reminds me in many ways of The Red Tent in that it explores female friendship in a setting much different than any contemporary one. A fascinating read.
Great Examination of Rural 1800s China and Women March 10, 2007
Lisa Shea
86 out of 102 found this review helpful
There are certain books you read that make you really think, "Thank goodness I wasn't living in THAT culture!" Snow Flower and the Secret Fan definitely falls into that category. This story traces the life of Lily, a young farmer's daughter in a very rural area of China, born in 1823.
The book was very well researched, and does do its best to explain that while this life was not as free as modern culture is for women, it was in some ways "not as awful" as it could have been. Lily explains that in some areas of China, women were worked brutally hard, treated like pack animals. In her region, women were treasured. You might think this is a great thing :) However, by treasured, this meant they were isolated in a room with lattice windows, so that some light would get in but they could not be seen. This kept them safe - but trapped. To make matters worse, their beauty was determined by how tiny their feet were. This isn't just the tiny-waist of a corset. Young girls actually had their feet broken and squished, over a period of 2 years, so that an adult woman had a foot about the size of a thumb. All that was left of the foot was one big toe to balance on. It meant their gait was slow and delicate. In essence, they could never run away - and they could barely walk around to do minor chores - cooking, cleaning.
So on one hand, this was a very restricted life for women. They were hidden away in an isolated room, and their broken feet were tiny and barely functional. On the other hand, a hard-working peasant woman might look on this as the life of luxury. Why couldn't *She* laze away in peace and quiet, doing embroidery and weaving? Why couldn't *She* have the excuse of tiny feet instead of slaving in the hot sun all day doing field work?
So into this world of hiding-away, Lily is hooked up with a 'laotong' - or lifelong best friend. The two talk with private women-only writing, mu shu. It gives them a way to discuss the problems with their lives. There are of course misunderstandings, changes as the girls mature into women, jealousies, issues with children, and so on.
I love reading books about other times and cultures, and have read many books that detail the "life was awful for women back then" situations. Foot binding was awful, and I'm certainly glad they don't do it any more. The rigid order of "boys are better than girls" and "wives are subservient to husbands" is also not a wonderful one, but this was pretty common in most cultures around the world. Both of these points were hammered a bit heavily in the book. It was fine the first five times - but re-reading it every 5th page made me really long for more details.
For example, we hear hardly anything about how birth was handled, what children wore, the details of the marriage ceremony, what the various festivals mentioned were like, if they had any instruments, if they had books, pasttimes, toys, hobbies, styles of embroidery, etc. etc. These important features of life are glossed over with a mention of tassles or a comment about shoes. Instead, we hear over and over again that girls are worse than boys. We hear that husbands must be obeyed. We hear about the pain of footbinding. I think most of us readers really did understand the basics after the third or fourth mention.
That's not to say the book isn't a great read. But I think with just a little more time, it could have been stellar. The book is clearly all about 'women', but even so, the men mentioned are vague stereotypes - the wife-beater, the distant father, the weakling son. Even women who are in restrictive cultures can form relationships with males. The heroines in this story seem not to like guys, not to like girls, and to care for each other in a sort of shallow way. Lily "loves" Snow Flower instantly - but doesn't really want to listen to her problems. Snow Flower lies to Lily pretty much constantly, wanting to maintain the illusion she has.
I'd love to read another novel, set in this same world, but with more complex characters.
 A story that makes Chinese people laugh November 30, 2007
C. Pun
67 out of 79 found this review helpful
"Nu Shu" is the only interesting element in the story. The rest of the story is very lame, very funny and make us laugh when we read. My family, my friends and I all read this book in Hong Kong, and we don't think this is a good story whether it's in English or in Chinese translation. We Chinese feel this story is like a Chinese Stir Fry Hamburger cooked by McDonalds, and then be called "Chinese Food". Poor farm girl could never marry up regardless of her feet! Marriage was dominanted by social status at that time, "Bamboo Door To Bamboo Door", "Wooden Door to Wooden Door" were the undefying rules for arranged marriages, which was never to be violated!!! Well-to-do Chinese Han (Majority Ethnic Chinese) families bounded their daughters' feet so they didn't have to marry down!!! There are many other stupid and laughable things in the story I don't have enough space here to name all!! Powerful, Royal and Rich Ruling Manchurians and a lot of other ethnic groups and poor Han Chinese didn't bind their women's feet!!! Qing Dynasty actually had an imperial ban for feet binding, but was unable to enforce it like the way they enforced the men's dress code!! Han Chinese did it also as a defiance against the ruling Manchurians, because it was the only victory they could hold after China was occupied by a non-Han Chinese ethnic group!
Lily sounds too detached to me in the story. The writer's American voice is too strong in the story, reads more like an American journalist trying to make sense of what she observed and the little she understood in Chinese culture, making whatever she knew Chinese look as exotic as Americans would like to see by adding acts of lesiban scenes (absurd how Lily and Snowflower got naked and lick their finger and write Nu Shu on each other's private parts in Qing Dynasty! They were supposed to be deeply influenced by Confusious teaching and yet doing that!!) Why don't Americans just re-write "Pride & Prejudice" so Elizabeth could do a little dirty lap dancing on Mr. Darcy during their first meeting?
What if the Chinese write a novel about Pre-civil war Georgia in America, e.g. "A Native American Navajo girl Pocahontas O'hara, dressed in a puffy lacey ball gown, wearing a necklace adorned by feathers and danced in a New Year ball hosted by her father, a plantation owner. She danced waltz with a very handsome Mr.Katz, who was an orthodox American Jew and he was wearing a Yamaka...During the whole dance, Pocanhontas was humming her melodic Navajo prayers into Mr. Katz's ears "
What will the American people think of the Chinese if we write something like that?? We will be booed on the "O Reily Factor" every night! Will you call this a good story about the American culture and diversity? But we will never venture into writing stories like that. We respect other people's culture so we just play safe and never write fiction of another culture, cause no matter how much we read about it, there are still things that we will never comprehend becaue we think differently with our Chinese minds! This "Snowflower" book is as silly to the Chinese pepole, as the above book idea to the Americans. Yes, there were some true elements in the book like the Nu Shu, but all mixed up and became very silly together, like a wierd stry-fry.
Excellent! December 23, 2006
Carolyn Rampone (Plantation, FL USA)
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
The lifelong story of Lily and Snow Flower broke my heart on so many levels. I cried for them as little girls enduring the traditions they were born to. I cried some more as their fates unfolded and it became evident it would not be a happy ever after tale. "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" was an unexpected surprise for me, a great story with twists and turns you might not anticipate. It is fast moving , almost from the first page and by mid book, I wasn't able to put it down. I just had to know what happened and couldn't wait for the ending. Teen girls should read "Snow Flower" to better understand how far women have come since the days of foot binding and arranged marriages. This was an excellent story and I highly recommend it.
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